Institute of Customer Experience Management

Post Graduate Programme in Business Management

FAQs

Mr. Subir GhoshDATE: 19TH OCTOBER 2011

A chat with

Subir Ghosh, President of Aegis Global Academy, answers questions on‘Bridging The Skills Gap in Service Industry’ that students have to ask him ashe sets out to chat online with them.

We bring you the snapshot of the same chat on www.Timesjobs.com

Q & A

• Q: What skills gap do you see in service industry today?

• A: My view of the formula for success in the service industry is a

combination of the right mindset, skill set and knowledge of

products / process. While the latter 2 are standard fare in most

training related endeavors its the mindset i.e. the service orientation

which is the starting point for connecting with the role and the

customer where the lacunae lies. The outcome is that people are

indulging in rituals without understanding the rationale or the

emotion behind the rituals thus defeating the whole purpose.

Q & A

• Q: You yourself managed customer experiences for so many brands in the past. How has customer reception to brands changed? How challenging is it to manage and manipulate brand experiences of new age customers?

• A: Customer expectations are always a function of the promises made by organisations in the course of their sales and marketing efforts. With the proliferation of brands and enhanced competitiveness, organisations are always trying to outshout one another with the objective of grabbing attention, thus, raising the expectation bar only to disappoint during the consumers moment of truth, a classic example is the big hype over 3g services which promises the moon but fails miserably in delivery due to very limit on the ground equipment in most cities. As regards the 2nd part of the question please understand that both of us are customers and hate to be manipulated, thus building trust by matching delivery with promise is the only way forward.

Q & A

• Q: 'Customer Centricity' is the key to customer retention. But since almost all new-age brands understand and practice it, what could brands do to differentiate and get an edge?

• A: While almost all companies talk about very few practice, at least that's my experience so far. There is a lot of talk of intent but very little commitment to creating the right culture and practice. Very little customer related data is a part of top management; the only thing that people still look at is revenues and costs and little else. However some organisations like Taj hotels, HDFC bank, stand out. Jet airways was a premier brand in this segment but has been slipping of late.

Q & A

• Q: Big service-delivery companies with better awareness often apply the 3Cs of service industry, but smaller companies are neither aware nor have enough means to apply it. What could be done to make smaller companies equally customer-oriented like their bigger counterparts?

• A: I think customer centricity is a belief that business exists only because there are customers with expectations and everything else is peripheral, this has nothing to do with companies being large or small. I know of many small business display this philosophy very exemplarily, the dhabas on the highway for instance which give you a great value for money, experience and never fail to live up to expectations. Our favorite restaurant, tailor, jeweler, with whom we have long term relationships are all manifestations of businessmen who demonstrate this mindset.

Q & A

• Q: Who is primarily responsible for the skill development? Is it the education system / university / colleges / students / industry?

• A: I think it’s everybody's responsibility the students who should desire this, the education system that must enable this at a basic level and organisations that must provide this as a part of building the capability of the organisation. However the onus would primarily lie with the seeker as one has to be committed to enhancing one's ability in the 1st place otherwise it would be a case of taking a horse who is not interested in drinking to the water hole.

Q & A

• Q: Are their different CEM strategies for B2B and B2C companies? What are the core considerations while formulating these strategies?

• A: The philosophy doesn't really change as the fundamental reason why a customer engages with a seller is because he / she is looking for a solution to some aspect of their lives either in the professional or personal spheres. The challenge would typically be around an efficiency / convenience issue, a security / productivity / cost reduction issue or a fun excitement / status enhancement issue. The consideration would always centre around the proper identification and creation a delivery capability to meet and exceed expectations on the issue.

Q & A

• Q: What are the initiatives from industry to bridge the gap?

• A: The industry is now slowly beginning to realize that with a proliferation of choice easy availability of information and a platform to amplify dissonance, the power is slowly shifting from the hands of the institution to that of the individual. Several top captains of industry are at least beginning to make the right noises; you can read some of these on our website www.aegisglobalacademy.com.

Q & A

• Q: Do you think service delivery companies in India are ready toembrace the idea of experiential marketing? How far are we fromthe west in the quality of service delivery?

• A: We are at least one decade away from the west if not more in terms of experiential marketing simply because the era of consumerism where there are choices galore for the consumer has been around in the west for 3 decades or more. We have only in the last decade moved from a scenario of monopolies, duopolies to a multiple choice scenario. Hence we are still caught up in the product paradigm, not having grasped the fact that people don't really buy products but buy solutions to a problem or challenge they are facing while trying to enhance their quality of life is concerned.

Q & A

• Q: Apart from good service and favorable brand experience, what are the other components that influence customer brand loyalty?

• A: Customer experience is facilitated/impacted around the 2 aspects of an organisation that a customer engages with, namely people, processes, products and physical/virtual environment in which business is transacted. While the last 3 aspects can be replicated the only sustainable differentiator that impacts the efficacy of the other aspects is people. Hence the attitude and engagement level of people within the organisation will be the continuing differentiator for all time to come; it's the culture that would be the only unique thing between companies.

Q & A

• Q: Hotel management programs are best known to teach efficient service delivery in hotel sector. Do you think there should be dedicated service delivery programs for other service sectors too, like banks, telecom etc?

• A: Service culture orientation would be mandatory for every organisation irrespective of the industry as the only reason customers engage with organisations is that they require some need of theirs to be served. Thus people within organisations are either serving colleagues to enable the final customer or serving customers directly. Why should any other role even exist if it does see itself as a part of the final customer enablement process?

Q & A

• Q: What key considerations you keep in mind before designing CEM programs for your institute?

• A: Three things:

i. The motivations of customers to engage with companies.

ii. The mechanisms adopted by the various industry verticals to deliver on these expectations.

iii. Global best practices in this field both from a research perspective and industry specific practices.

Lets Begin…

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